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What is Midsumma Festival?

BY
Cordelia
Wednesday, 09 January 2019

Victoria's biggest queer party!

The Midsumma Festivalwas born in the 1980s with Melbourne's Gay Day, with continued momentum and support this became the Midsumma Festival in 1989. Ever since, Midsumma has been the premier LGBTIQA+ festival in Victoria and the epicentre for Queer creators and performers.

The Midsumma Festival is a three week cultural festival that highlights Queer artists, culture makers, social transformers and advocates. The festival features a huge variety of diverse creators with performances ranging from spoken word, film, live music and parties. Just last year, there was over 170 events with almost 500 different contributors.

The Midsumma Carnival is a vibe filled day, and all night celebration - attracting over 100,000 attendees! During the day it's a family friendly space with food stalls, live performances and dog shows. In the evening, the carnival welcomes T Dance, featuring DJ's, live musicians and performances. This year, Minus18 will return as host for the Youth Pavilion, with hundreds of LBGITQ youth enjoying music, live shows, chill out zones and art. In 2018, it'll also mark the 24th year of the Midsumma Pride March, which sees over 45,000 people gather along St Kilda's Fitzroy St, to watch and march in celebration of the LGBTIQ community.

Minus18 and Midsumma have a long history, with Minus18 marching for over 10 years. In 2018, we marched with over 600 youth, making us the largest youth lead group at the Pride March - ensuring that queer youth are seen and get to be loud and proud! We've also hosted events like the Youth Spectacular which focused on showcasing queer youth talent and performers at the Melba Spiegeltent.

The Midsumma March and Carnival are celebratory, safe spaces for LGBTIQ+ people. The Minus18 Youth Pavilion and marching group is the place to be for queer young people to relax, celebrate and meet new friends at the biggest annual event for Queer people in Victoria!